And I love later spring, when everything's bright and new and so colorful; here's a view from our meadow just a month after the previous picture, on May 16:
The time frame for this current post almost exactly matches my two-part spring summary post from 2018 (which, while not planned, is convenient for me, because in the future I'll be able to look back and directly compare these two years). We actually got to spend more time at our house this year compared to last year (no lengthy traveling, and no house damage forcing us to stay in a hotel), so we were around to see more things. Even so, spring has felt like a whirlwind, with so much change and growth and motion, and not nearly enough time to take it all in. But I do what I can! And I've seen some really wonderful things this spring. (With so many sightings, this will need to be two posts. Here's part 1!)
Mammals
All the usual mammals have been around this spring: White-tailed Deer (including a fawn as of yesterday, June 3), Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, Red and Gray Squirrels, and Eastern Chipmunks. A Groundhog has shown up to forage in our yard several times, and while we're fairly certain she's a mother, we haven't seen any babies yet. Here's a chipmunk posing near the edge of our woods on May 1:
This spring has also brought a couple of amazing mammal sightings. For a few chilly days (and nights) at the end of April, a tiny Tricolored Bat (which used to be called an Eastern Pipistrelle) roosted near the ceiling of our front porch. This bat was only a couple of inches long, and we worried about it a bit as it stayed huddled in the same rather open spot for so long; but as soon as the weather warmed up again, it headed off. I feel very lucky to have gotten to see this little creature, and we were happy to share our porch with it:
Also incredibly lucky: On the evening of May 25, I saw a Gray Fox in our meadow. We were both out walking through the meadow, we spotted each other, stared at each other for several seconds (I had binoculars but hadn't brought my camera, sigh), and then the fox turned and bounded off. I knew Gray Foxes were around because they showed up on our trail camera a couple of times last year, but I'd never seen a Gray Fox in person before. It was beautiful, and somehow sleek and bushy at the same time. What an amazing creature!
Birds
Spring is a great time for birds, of course, with so many species leaving, arriving, passing through, and getting started with breeding. On March 23, I watched a flock of Snow Geese fly over the house, headed north:
A handsome male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker spent several days in April drilling and tending wells in our Shagbark Hickory tree:
A male Wild Turkey displayed in our meadow a few times, mostly for females who seemed uninterested (this picture is from April 11):
Turkeys are such strange-looking birds. Here's a flamboyant male who passed through the meadow on May 1:
Song Sparrows are among the cast of regulars in our yard during the spring -- I can almost always hear and/or see a Song Sparrow somewhere around the house or meadow if I try. But that doesn't mean I won't take the opportunity to make a picture of one of these handsome birds if they let me; I love Song Sparrows, and I'm very happy to have them around:
The male Chipping Sparrow with the white forehead arrived back in our yard this spring; this was the third year in a row we've seen him here, and it's nice to be able to greet a familiar individual bird:
Sadly, this is the last year we'll get to see this fancy fellow. At some point in May, he stopped showing up in the yard, and a few days later I found his body by the side of the road. I'm guessing he was hit by a car. Finding a dead animal is always sad, but this feels especially so because I could recognize the individual. I suppose these things happen, and I don't like it.
May brought all sorts of exciting avian arrivals. I watched this male Hooded Warbler singing from exposed perches in our woods on May 16:
The apple tree next to our house had lots of blossoms this year, and it drew in quite a few birds (who looked especially pretty surrounded by all those pink flowers). Here's a Blue-winged Warbler on May 17:
And a Tennessee Warbler on the same day:
I saw Tennessee Warblers in this tree several times this May, apparently because of some nice buggy meals hiding inside the blossoms. Here are some more pictures of the same individual from the previous picture, showing off some impressive foraging skills -- watch out, bugs:
Baltimore Orioles were also frequent visitors to this tree, although I kept missing them with my camera. Even at one of the more distant trees, though, a male Baltimore Oriole surrounded by apple blossoms made quite a sight:
See the next post (part 2) for the rest of this spring's sightings!
Great pictures!
ReplyDelete